Pieces of An Echo
by LavenderAndTime
Summary: Clara Oswald is an impossible woman, and the Tenth Doctor likes impossible... Various Allonswin one-shots about Ten and Clara's travels, and everything in between. More info inside. (Three: Clara has another near-death experience, but this time, the Doctor is ready to turn the tables...)
1. 1) No Questions Asked, Period

**AN: Ableit being part of a series, these can easily be read as separate one-shots.**

**For anyone who'd like to know, however, these are Allonswin one-shots set in my "Echoes Of Time" fic-verse, where the Tenth Doctor is the first one to come across Clara Oswald and the mysteries she presents****. But this is a place for me to deposit my mind stuff, and ideas that wouldn't fit into my main story, _An Echo Speaks. _Which are numerous. :P**

**The one-shots are in no particular order, which means that they'll have the Doctor and Clara at different points in their relationship. Some are funny, some might be ridiculously fluffy... Some may have feels. We'll see. :D**

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_No Questions Asked, Period._

The Doctor gazed across the console at his friend, who seemed considerably more tepid than usual. She hadn't talked for minutes, but usually he couldn't get a word in edgewise. "You feeling okay?" he asked, genuinely worried. "You look pale."

Clara crossed her arms snugly around her torso and leaned back against the coral pillar. "I'm fine." Her brooding expression abandoned her empty claim.

"Doesn't seem so," he chortled, swiping out his sonic screwdriver. He lifted it up to her neck and began scanning her, his face bright with a youthful enthusiasm, but hers looking more and more as if she were considering biting as an appropriate social convention. "Your body temperature's up just a fraction, hormone levels high, your energy low... Tell me, are you experiencing any sort of abdominal pain, or a short, high-pitched droning noise right at the back of the-"

Clara interrupted him swiftly, with her lips contorted into a salty grimace.

"Doctor, get that thing out of my face, or so help me, I will CRAM it where it's never been crammed before!"

Needless to say, he backed off, not wanting to take the trouble to remember where he hadn't hid the sonic device... yet. "Well. All right," he said, hands raised in defense. "Somebody's in a huff today. Don't know what I did to deserve it, much less what caused it."

She started at him with such an intensity he momentarily considered if she were capable of burning out his retinas. "You are _kidding_ me," she spat.

"What?" he squeaked, eyes wide. "Seriously, what'd I do?"

Clara threw out her arms in mock despair.

"You've picked up human females as companions for how long," she attempted to explain, "and this whole time you've _never_ noticed? Our monthlies?"

The Doctor's feet were firmly planted to the ground, his jaw was dropped open, and his face was blank. Ultimately giving up, Clara growled, and did an about-face.

"Impossible," she muttered, while stamping off to the secondary corridors. "He's mastered everything in the universe except women."

Silence fell upon the console room; the only noise remaining being the low hum of the TARDIS's engines. The Doctor _still_ stood there speechless. He looked around sheepishly, ran his fingers through his hair, and when he couldn't think anymore on the subject, returned to piloting the time ship.

"I still don't know what I did wrong," he murmured quietly.


	2. 2) Key For Her

_Key For Her_

Certain moments in time, Clara found, were simply made to be good. It was the first week in May, the sun was shining, and it was an 'adventure day', as she liked to call them. She'd quickly decided these to be her favorite days.

The Doctor had arrived early that morning to whisk her away in his time machine. He took her to this ocean planet- somewhere on the edge of the Milky Way, he had said- where all the sea life was bioluminescent. The water there would have been a deep indigo in normal conditions, but the fish and the coral structures lit up the ocean bottom like a million beacons. It was as bright as daylight. She was positive she'd never seen anything so beautiful.

After having fun snorkeling on the ocean floor for a few hours, the two had returned to the TARDIS. Her hair was soaking wet- and dripping all over her change of clothes- but it was totally worth it.

With a triumphant "ha", the Doctor flicked on the parking brake, and the entire ship lurched to a stop. Clara tightened her grip on the metal rail that circled around a portion of the console, still not completely used to his messy driving skills. After all, the last time he had parked, she had almost fallen on her butt.

"Thanks for the lift," she laughed, and smoothed out her wet hair. She grabbed her purse from the floor and slung it over her shoulder.

As she began walking backwards to the door, she noticed the smile that curved over his lips. It was a lonely smile. Perhaps he were trying to mask it, but she could tell because of his sad eyes. At that moment, Clara thought back to what the Doctor had told her last week... that he had traveling companions before. Once, when searching for a bathroom in the vast ship, she had seen some bedrooms lining the halls. She wondered if they stayed with him, in between the adventures.

She began to push through the doors, when she heard his voice call out for her.

"Clara?"

"Yeah?" Clara turned around. The Doctor stood behind her, holding a small silver key in his palm.

"This is yours," he said. "Frequent flyer's privilege."

She paused, her mind whirring. "Is this a key to your ship?"

"Oh, yes!" he grinned wildly.

"But... you always pick me up," Clara insisted. "I don't need it."

"Then take it as a symbol," he replied swiftly. "Thing is, Clara Oswald-" he gently took her hand, placed the key in her palm, and closed it around it- "I've been alone for _far_ too long. I'm glad I met you. And I'd like you to continue being a part of my- Oof!-"

The rest of his 'speech' was completely cut off as Clara suddenly wrapped her arms tight around him. It was a quick hug, but entirely heartfelt.

"Of course I'll be a part of your life," she told him. "We're friends. That's what friends do, isn't it?"


	3. 3) We All Have Secrets

**Prompt: Clara has (another) near-death experience.**

(Prompt from NickyD's OC Factory)

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**Yeah, this came out more angsty than I expected. There's fluff at the end to even that out. Plus, the next two should be rather amusing. I'll be doing your babysitting ****prompt, darck ben! :-)**

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_We All Have Secrets_

"One-and-two-and-three-and-four-and-five-and-six-and-seven-and-eight-and..."

The Doctor sucked in another shaky breath and continued to do compressions. His hands were interlaced, pushing against Clara's chest, just over her heart. As the seconds ticked on, the muscles in his wrists began to ache insufferably, and keeping a steady beat became harder and harder. That's why he was counting- it was keeping him focused. His voice was only a raspy whisper, however, laced with shards of anger and a steely cold fear that shot daggers into his soul.

He directed most of his anger at himself. Why, oh _why_, did he have to take Clara Oswald here? Being fully aware of the civil war that was afoot, why the _hell_ did he choose this planet? And as for the rest of his anger, why was it that every single time he came upon this intuitive, smart woman, the universe tried stripping her away from him?

His fears, meanwhile, were because of her. She was his friend. His muse. She'd brought him out of that lost time in his life, from the regrets of long-gone relationships and the mourning of Donna Noble. Her optimism was the light that poured into his darkness, letting him truly _see _the boundless, wonderful cosmos in front of him. But his muse wasn't breathing. She would have drowned if he hadn't dived into the lake to pull her out.

Only minutes earlier, it seemed, everything was in its proper place. They had just escaped from a military base in a particularly tension-filled area of the planet, and were running back to the TARDIS as fast as they could. Neither of them knew of the explosive charges left in the base by rivals in the civil war...

He could remember that moment clearly. They were sprinting across a narrow bridge, with no railing. A deep indigo lake sparkled below, and the weather conditions were dreadfully frigid. He remembered Clara's warm hand, clasped tight in his. The concrete bridge was slick from the spray of the waterfall at their side. They were maybe halfway across, when a wing of the base behind them exploded. Neither of them were expecting the powerful shock wave that resulted.

The most horrifying thing was watching her body bend in a completely unnatural way as the sheer force of the blast flung her off of the bridge.

His mind had called up images he'd hidden in the back of his memory, nightmares of days since past. A violent shuttle explosion, which had taken his first Clara away, and the icy cloud that his second Clara fell from, like an angel plummeting from heaven. _This_ Clara, however, had plummeted into the lake like a dead weight, unconscious.

Now only hope could save her.

Tears escaped down the side of his cheek without warning, as he continued his efforts. They burned him, even though inside he was already ice-cold. A little over three minutes had already passed, and she still wasn't breathing. How much longer could Clara's mind survive without oxygen?

(_Six minutes_, his subconscious whispered. _A human brain is able to survive approximately six minutes without oxygen, with permanent brain damage after four.)_

Heavily exhausted, he decided to go for his last option. He sucked in as large of a breath as he possibly could, placed his lips securely over hers, and gave her a rescue breath. In the corner of his eyes, he saw her chest rise. Hopeful, he lowered his ear to her face, yearning to hear something, _anything. _

A moment passed in which the only perceptible sound was his two hearts pumping blood wildly through his veins. Everything else- the people shouting on the bridge above, the sound of plaster crackling in flames- was muffled.

Then, Clara began coughing. Instantly, a sense of relief washed over him. The weight of the guilt on his shoulders eased away. She snapped back into consciousness, and managed to roll on her side, where she coughed up the water that had been trapped in her airways. It hurt a lot to hear. It sounded like she might hurl up her toenails.

Woozy, Clara flopped on her back again. When she looked up, her eyes locked with his. He could only imagine what she saw- a man with sopping wet hair that had fallen flat over his forehead, tie and suit jacket nowhere to be seen, and the trails of tear drops across his cheeks. A part of him wished he could mask this vulnerability.

But as his friend rocketed up and wrapped her arms around him, he realized he didn't care about being vulnerable right now. Not around Clara.

"Not again," he gasped, holding her tight. "Never again..."

**~8~**

That evening, Clara tiptoed into the console room, bundled in a gigantic fuzzy blanket. The Doctor leaned against one of the pillars- still sans jacket and tie- fiddling with the insides of his sonic screwdriver. Being quiet enough not to disturb him, she walked up in front and leaned on the console. He paused his work to gaze up at her, with a small smile.

"Can't sleep?"

"Yeah," she admitted. "Too much on my mind. What about you?"

"I'm fine," he replied quickly. Clara simply sighed. She was aware he was reluctant about opening up too much, just like she'd been in the first few months she knew him, but the dark circles under his eyes suggested he was more exhausted from the day's ordeal than he wished to let on. This was why asking the Doctor _anything_ was hard at times; she had absolutely no idea how much he'd reveal on the matter.

"Doctor?" she asked, firmly deciding to press for an answer to the question that had plagued her for hours. "After you saved me, you kept saying, 'Not again.' What did you...?"

Seeing his pained reaction to this, she trailed off. Did she really need to know? She was well aware that the Doctor had others that traveled with him, before she came along. She wasn't the first, and she probably wouldn't be the last. And, if something terrible had happened to one of his traveling friends in the past... and maybe he couldn't save them...

"Never mind," Clara said, with a smile itching at the corner of her lips. "We all have secrets, don't we?"

Gently, she pushed herself to her tiptoes, and kissed his cheek. An act the likes of this wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The past few weeks, there had been more hugging, handholding, and cheek kissing than she had ever experienced in her entire life. This time, however, her lips came exceedingly close to his, almost brushing the corner of his mouth.

She pulled back, then gave him that wide, bright smile that showed her dimples. Turning on her heels, she scampered off into the bowels of the TARDIS, her fuzzy blanket dragging on the floor after her. The Doctor's face flushed. Lightly, he touched the skin at the corner of his lips, which was still warm from Clara's touch.


End file.
